My Media Diet

            Throughout the week, I spend more than 30+ hours on Facebook, about 15+ hours on other websites, and about 10 hours watching TV (shows and movies also watched on the Netflix and Hulu websites).  I also read when I have spare time and not on the Internet.

My media diet definitely shows that I might be addicted the technology/the media.  I spend a lot of my free time on the Internet, whether or not I’m being productive is a whole other question.  Media also, too easily, interferes with the time I have that can be spent studying or completing an assignment.  Having access to all these different forms of media keeps me occupied, but it also diminishes any inclination I might have to, say, go for a run or take my dog for a walk.  I definitely think that my media diet is slightly more full than the average person my age, but I know people who have a significantly smaller or disgustingly larger media diet than, what I would consider, average.  I think that how a person interacts with the media should be take into consideration.  Spending most of your time reading can be seen as either positive or negative.  Is that person reading a biography about Ghandi? Or are they reading about Kim Kardashian shopping with a dog in her purse?  People my age probably fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.  Content really plays a large role in describing our media diet.  The time we spend using the media can be seen as a waste or productive.

            My media diet suggests that Americans love their television.  We consume media on a daily basis (either directly or indirectly).  I do not think this is necessarily bad, as long as we focus on making sure the content we are consuming can be viewed as educational.  “Educational” in the sense that what we are consuming is able to teach us something new, or expand our ability to think critically, or gain a new understanding of yourself and others.  However, this ideal is difficult to achieve.  A lot of what is produced through the media is not exactly intellectually stimulating.  People really do flock to magazine racks or celebrity gossip sites to read about Lindsay Lohan going to rehab (I will admit that I love the website for Dlisted, but mostly for Michael K’s commentary.  Also, I have a pretty balanced media diet; Lindsay Lohan is not my world).

            I would love to cut down on my media diet.  I am 97% sure that limiting my time on Facebook and not playing Bubble Spinner for hours on end would increase my grades and make me more productive overall.  I would love to get to the point in my life where I am not checking my Facebook profile everyday.  Considering that I’m in college and that I live in the city, I’m not too surprised about my media diet.  I feel like I need to make it a personal goal to close my computer, turn off my television and just go for a walk, find a cool-looking, old building downtown, or volunteer.  I need to learn to further balance my media diet, and not let media consume my life.

Technology and Social Interaction

            Technology has a huge influence over social interactions, especially within our modern society.  Technology allows us to keep certain people either close to us as well as distance ourselves from people we not want to face-to-face interaction with.

            I am ambivalent towards whether or not technology has a more positive or negative impact on my own face-to-face interactions.  On a positive note, technology allows for people to keep in contact with people who mean something to them.  I like to use texting and Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family.  At the same time, I feel like technology can take away the sincerity of face-to-face interaction.  My friends and I will be out going to dinner and we will all be using the phone to text other people, or a bunch of us will all visit each other in our rooms and all be on Facebook.  What is the point of even getting together if we are all using technology to feel connected to someone else that is somewhere else?  It bugs me when my friend is trying to us about her day and half of my friends are texting and barely paying attention to that friend.  It bugs me that I am also guilty of doing this.

            More generally, I feel like technology has a more positive impact on people and social interaction.  Technology allows us to meet people who share our same interests.  It can bring together people who later create something innovative and new.  Although some people argue that people can establish meaningful relationships through texting or via the Internet, I do not believe that it is true.  You can maintain an already established relationship, but you cannot build a meaningful relationship from scratch on a dating site.

            I feel that people are neglecting their everyday relationship and are turning into slaves of technology.  I know technology allows us to do all of those great things, but we must learn not to let its capabilities overwhelm us and suck us away from the real world.  There has to be a balance established in order for us to continue having meaningful relationships with those we care about.  Completely shutting out technology from our lives is unfathomable, especially in this day and age.  However, completely separating ourselves from real world interaction and relying totally on technology is absolutely ridiculous.  I believe that now spheres need to be heard more than ever.  I don’t want to see five year olds making friends over Facebook in the future.  “Real” spaces allow for people to connect on deeper levels than the Internet could never begin to provide. You can’t hug a friend using Skype (I don’t care what you say, it just isn’t the same).  Despite its potential shortcomings, the role of technology is definitely an important aspect in our social interactions.  Technology allows us to keep in touch with those we love who are far away, and gives us the chance to meet new people. However, we must not let the benefits of technology overshadow the importance of face-to-face interaction.

Internet Memes: Popular YouTube Videos

Internet memes seem to have infiltrated into our physical world, especially in the form of YouTube videos.  I for one am all for someone or something becoming popular on the Internet, but the constant bombardment of something that is popular from the Internet into other forms of media, or even the real world, is getting ridiculous.  It has gotten to the point where people are even dressing up as something popular from the Internet on Halloween! (I am actually guilt of this.  My twin sister and I dressed up as a double rainbow for Halloween, which was awesome, especially when we got a reaction from people who immediately knew what we were).

Who knows why some videos on the Internet get so popular?  I can take a guess.  Most of the more famous Internet memes are videos in which a person is acting hysterically or is taking part in some sort of misfortune.  These videos are seen as “hilarious” and it’s always fun to show your friends a video of someone doing something stupid.  But are these types of videos harmful?  It would depend on the situation.  The boy who’s video of him practicing his light saber skills in a high school storage room gained popularity over the Internet instantly.  However the boy felt so ridiculed by the video that he filed a lawsuit towards the school.  His embarrassment does not seem worth a few cheap laughs at his expense.  However, other Internet stars, such as the “sittin’ on the toilet” lady make embarrassing videos on purpose, but without the goal of become famous on the Internet. 

Internet memes, especially in the care of popular YouTube videos seem to integrate themselves into pop culture.  Antoine Dodson is definitely infused into popular culture after one of his interviews was remixed into a song, a video that received almost forty million views in about 3-4 months.  His popularity has grown immensely.  He has his own Halloween costumes (saw at least thirty Dodson’s walking around Santa Barbara each day I went out last weekend), he’s the spokesperson for an iPhone app that tracks sexual offenders, and he even performed his remixed interview on the BET awards.  I’m sure that most people my age, or people who know people my age, have seen “The Bed Intruder Song” video on YouTube.  The song is ridiculously catchy and I often have to stop myself from quoting it in everyday situations.

After reflecting on why things on the Internet become so popular, I began to wonder if this has a positive or negative effect on society.  On one hand, it forever brands people with a label that they might not want to have for the rest of their life.  Chris Crocker received some unwanted attention from “haters” after his “Leave Britney Alone” video.  Internet popularity gives people fame that they might not want.  On the other hand, Internet memes allow for anyone to have their fifteen minutes of fame.  The little boy from the “David After Dentist” video was actually quoted on Glee.

I personally think that Internet memes are harmless as long as the people who create them and post them online are fully aware of what kind of repercussions what they post will have on their lives.  I love things on the Internet that are popular for no reason.  I would have had no idea what to be for Halloween if a friend hadn’t sent me the “Double Rainbow” video.

The Social Network

            I recently saw the film The Social Network and I was completely blown away.  I really did not think a bio film about the creation of Facebook, by Mark Zuckerberg, would keep my attention (let alone fascinate me).  My friend was actually shocked that I did not make snide remarks throughout the duration of the film.  Anyways, many different aspects of The Social Network intrigued me.

            The first factor I was so intrigued by from the film was that once “Tha Facebook” was created, its popularity spread like a vicious case of herpes.  The concept that you had to be invited by someone already on Facebook seemed like a brilliant idea to me.  People like to feel like they are a part of something exlclusive, which explains why Facebook gained more populatiry than, say, MySpace.  The idea of exclusivity gave people more of an incentive to join Facebook.  Whether or not Zuckerberg stole this idea from the Winklevoss twins did not concern me much.  I felt like the twins were portrayed as whiny, rich boys in the film and I barely felt any sympathy for them.  However, their so-called role in the creation of Facebook definitely added some interesting drama to the film and Zuckerberg’s life.

            Watching The Social Network was like watching the birth of my child.  I absolutely love Facebook, but I was disheartened to see that its creation was brought about by people who seem just downright rude and devious.  Mark Zuckerberg was portrayed as an arrogant asshole who did not care who he used as a means to an end, even his seemingly caring friend Eduardo Saverin.  I definitely do not blame Saverin for suing Zuckerberg.  His friend treated him like a piggy bank and would be nowhere now if he had not given him the algorithm for Facemash.com.  Sean Parker was just completely annoying throughout the whole story.  He was ruthless and turned out to be a bigger asshole than Zuckerberg.  But, at the same time, without these assholes I would have to find other creative ways to waste my day and be completely unproductive.

            After watching this movie, I definitely wanted to look up more things about the film: the actors, the real people involved, and the entire storyline.  This did not really work out.  What I did end up researching was the actor who played the Winklevoss twins.  I was so disappointed to discover that they were not played by real twins, but by two people with one’s face on the other person’s body.  How weird is that?  I was surprised to read about how Zuckerberg reaction to the film keeps shifting, first he like the film, then he doesn’t like how he is portrayed.

            Overall, I would say that The Social Network was an intriguing film.  People who love movies should see it and people who love Facebook should definitely see the film.  I was interesting to see how big of an impact the Internet can have on a person’s life and how that impact can affect billions.

Social Networking and Privacy

            If I’m near a computer, I am most likely on Facebook.  Even while I’m typing this onto my blog, Facebook is open on another window.  I can’t even remember what I used to do on the Internet for so long before I created a Facebook profile.  Social networking sites are extremely prevalent within society today.  It has become especially prevalent and popular among young adults and teenagers.  Nowadays, people want to be able to connect with other people, even when they do not have the means to do so face to face.  So now people are staying connected Facebook to Facebook. 

Social networking sites make it easier for me to stay connected with friends and family while I am away at school.  Social networking sites, along with other new forms of communication and technology, allow people to be in constant contact with each other.  I’ll text my friend and tell her to go on Facebook to show her a link, and she’ll Facebook chat me telling me to go on iChat because the connection is faster. 

Technology does seem to interfere with our daily lives.  Our lives online and our lives in the physical world are intertwined nowadays.  A person can say that they have a significant other in their lives in the physical world, but now people will not fully believe that person unless their relationship status on Facebook is set to “in a relationship”.

There is a lack of privacy that comes along with being so closely connected with these social networking sites.  What you put online gives people a window to see into your life.  The amount of privacy you have depends on what you decide to put online.  I have plenty of friends who get upset and complain about so many people trying to “get up in their business” while they choose to treat their Facebook status like a diary and put up every little about their lives.  Privacy on this type of site can also be breached by other people.  One of my friends was almost outted as being gay when his friend posted things on his Facebook wall and statuses regarding his sexuality.  Privacy is a sensitive issue when it comes to social networking sites.  It is hard to regulate privacy for a large and diverse group of people who all have different views on how many and/or what aspects of their lives the want to remain private.  The existence of a lack of privacy on these sites can be scary, since most of what we put up on the Internet stays on the Internet forever.  I haven’t ever put up anything that I would regret anyone seeing, no incriminating photos or angry emails, but the fear of someone tagging me in some crazy photo is always there.

Despite the setback concerning privacy and maybe devoting too much time in the day on them, social networking sites are important to keep in touch with others these days.  The benefits of social networking sites definitely outweigh the negative aspects involved in it.